Jacksonville Wine Guide

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Fulcrum Gap’s Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast.

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Kris

100% Pinot Noir

Ok, let’s get something straight from the start! There’s Pinot and there’s Pinot. The perception of Pinot Noir by most wine drinkers has been so skewed, thanks to grocery store brands, that it’s not even funny! Sure, wines such as the Fulcrum aren’t “everyday gluggers,” but if you really want to know what Pinot Noir SHOULD taste like, you need to be willing to occasionally invest a little more cash every now and then…

David Rossi and his wife Christinna are the founders of Fulcrum Wines. David is known to be about as hands-on as a winemaker can be, even going so far as loading and hauling the fruit to the winery himself.

Instead of taking what seems to be the “usual approach” so often seen by a great number of wineries (whom obviously have accountants watching over their every move), David Rossi focuses on making the purest expression of Pinot possible i.e. no other grapes/additives to “bulk up” the juice.

David Rossi didn’t get the luxury of a UCD education in enology and viticulture, his winemaking career actually began at home. Obviously his wife is a very patient woman!
What started as a hobby, expanded into his basement, which he swiftly filled with commercial winemaking equipment and every wine chemistry textbook known to mankind. He then graduated onto a custom crush facility in California where he earned his first 94 point rating from the Wine Spectator for his Gap’s Crown Pinot (which at the time was named “Split Rock”).